everydayExcel Times

Use MicrosoftÂ® Excel Differently to Gain a Productive Edge

Issue - Aug 2009

Applying Selective Protection To Your Worksheet

Consider this scenario. You are working on the sales forecast for next year
and would like to ask your sales team to estimate the amount of sales they
are likely to achieve for next year. You have created a template that listed
down all the information required for the forecast. Any change in the template
by your sales people will hinder your effort in consolidation. However, when
you activate the worksheet protection by going to menu -> Tools -> Protection ->
Protect Sheet, the entire worksheet is protected. As a result, your sales people
are not able to enter their sales forecast into the protected worksheet.
You wonder how you could protect the worksheet such that your sales team can
enter their sales forecasts into the selected cells without being able to
modify the template...

Here's how: To protect the worksheet with only some ranges editable by your
sales team, you need to unlock those cells first before you protect the
worksheet. To find out how to do it, click on this protect worksheet page.

Protecting the worksheet is a good way to protect the layout of your template.
But if your purpose of protecting the worksheet is to prevent your users from
accessing the confidential information in hidden columns or rows, I would advise
you to think twice. The protection on the worksheet is easily removed in three
simple steps. In other words, all the confidential information within hidden
rows and columns can easily become accessible to your users. We have actually
demonstrated how this was done for our participants in one of our recent
courses.

Our training course offers many valuable tips and tricks such as that
illustrated above. We not only train what is available in Excel but also
provide you with solutions to common Excel problems you encounter at work.
If this is the type of Excel training you wish to attend, and experience an
average 36% increase in productivity like our participants, sign up for our
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now!

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